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LIS 100 Award Announcement ]
LIS100: Libraries, Scholarship, and Technology
University of Hawaii at Manoa
3 credit, Writing Intensive Designated, Semester Course
The four principle developers of this course are: Ross Christensen, Humanities
Librarian, University of Hawaii at Manoa Library, Vicky Lebbin, Social Sciences
Librarian, University of Hawaii at Manoa Library, Professor Margit Misangyi Watts,
Director, Freshman Seminars/Rainbow Advantage Programs, University of Hawaii
at Manoa, and myself, Randy Burke Hensley, Public Services Division Head, University
of Hawaii at Manoa Library.
This course is ground breaking as it partners instructional librarians and
university faculty in the teaching of information literacy within a learning
community venue. Furthermore, the content is actually imbedded in the context
of learning about scholarship as well as the use of technology in a higher education
setting.
Implemented in fall 1999, LIS100 is an information literacy course residing
in the UHM Library and Information Science
Program Curriculum. The course is a three credit, semester-long course that
is designated as Writing Intensive by the University, thus enabling the course
to meet core graduation requirements. All UHM students must take fifteen credits
of Writing Intensive designated courses for graduation.
LIS100 integrates information literacy with the nature of scholarship. Students
examine how something is known, the purposes of knowledge, and the standard structures
for scholarly investigation such as hypothesis, methodology, credibility, validity,
and the structure of discourse. This integration provides a meaningful context
for both the nature of libraries and universities. Students examine forms and
functions of information resources, the organization of libraries, bibliographic
structures, Internet, and other technology based resources. They also learn about
the kinds of information available--print, visual, and oral-- and which are applicable
to categories of inquiry. They also develop skills in effective question formation.
The course is innovative because information technology is viewed as both
a tool for finding and using information, and as a pedagogical approach. Students
gain an understanding of standard information technology capabilities for scholarship
such as email, Internet, listservs and synchronous time environments. Students
become proficient in the use of bibliographic and textual databases through an
understanding of searching and record structures. Students are provided with
extensive opportunities to learn standard technology protocols and structures.
The course provides an understanding of the university as an institution,
its structure, environment, purposes, history, and methods. As a result students
gain an appreciation for their own role at the university and its relationship
to education in the larger society. More importantly, students begin to understand
the nature of scholarship as it pertains to research and how their own learning
and work at the university will actually be a form of contribution to scholarship.
The course is used exclusively in a learning communities learning approach.
Learning communities purposefully re-structure the curriculum to link together
courses or course work so that students find greater coherence in what they are
learning as well as increased intellectual interaction with faculty and fellow
students. Learning communities incorporate a teacher as learner model where the
teacher engages the students more as a facilitator and connector than a primary
or sole source of knowledge and course direction. Collaborative defines
the classroom approach where the dynamic is interactive, sharing, and connecting.
Active learning,with its emphasis on applications and involvement, is a preferred
pedagogical approach. Courses in learning communities strive to be more student-driven,
in that the student has a more instrumental role in determining course content
and classroom activities. In fact, the student is seen to be so central to the
functioning of a learning community that experiential and experimental
best describe the course environment. Learning communities are experiential in
that they attempt to forge relationships between content and the actual life
experiences of students. They are experimental in that there is a high degree
of risk taking and trying alternatives in course assignments and learning activities.
Finally, learning communities are more likely to explore a subject through the
use of multiple perspectives and disciplinary knowledge bases. Therefore, they
are rich critical thinking environments.
The course is innovative in that not only was its initial development a collaboration
between librarians and faculty, but its use in learning communities requires
ongoing collaboration between the instructors of the courses to insure content
coherence and connections are made for students. Each semester librarians and
faculty work extensively to develop the LIS100 content for the specific set of
learning community courses.
LIS100 is a part of the University of Hawaii at Manoa Library
and Information Science Program. An internship has been developed for the
LIS Program's graduate students where graduate students teach sections of LIS100
as part of the Freshman Seminar Program,
one program of the First Year at
Manoa Initiative. These students learn about information literacy and teaching
in the context of being instructors for groups of ten undergraduate students
taking LIS100 along with another Freshman Seminar course. Internship students
receive a thorough and intensive teaching experience that is mentored by a librarian
by means of weekly meetings to discuss course progress, classroom management,
and pedagogical approaches.
In 1998, UHM instituted a series of learning community programs for first
year undergraduate students titled First Year at Manoa. The five-year goal is
for every first year student to be part of a learning community during one of
their first two semesters. Four sections of LIS100 were offered as part of this
First Year at Manoa effort in fall 1999 and six sections were offered in fall
2000. Under the First Year at Manoa umbrella learning communities are offered
in several programs. LIS100 is taught within three of these (Manoa Connections,
Selected Studies, and Freshmen Seminar).
Manoa Connections
In the Manoa Connections Program librarians teach sections of LIS100 which are
linked with one to three other content courses for undergraduates such as American
Studies, English, History, Medical Technology, Music, and Sociology. The students
enrolled in a section of LIS100 are simultaneously enrolled in the other courses
in the learning community. Student enrollment is limited to twenty students
Selected Studies
Selected Studies is the freshmen/sophomore component of the Honors Program at
UHM. A learning community linking LIS100 with English has become an established
part of the Honors Program and is offered both fall and spring semester. Student
enrollment is limited to twenty students.
Freshmen Seminar
The Freshman Seminar Program is limited to first year students who take seminar
style courses from the core curriculum of the University. Graduate students or
senior undergraduate students teach all Freshman Seminar courses. The internship
with the UHM Library Information Science Program provides graduate students to
teach sections of LIS100 as part of the Freshman Seminar Program. Student enrollment
is limited to ten students.
The developers of LIS100 have created a flexible model for providing information
literacy instruction that provides a meaningful context for the study of information
utilization and evaluation in the framework of the nature of scholarship, the
nature of the university as an arena for scholarship, and in information technology.
Furthermore, the course has been integrated into a major university initiative
and an increasingly popular approach to teaching and learning across campuses
in the United States. It serves as an important example of the benefits of extensive
collaboration between faculty and librarians. The course is also a model for
the integration of information literacy into the curriculum of an academic institution.
Additional Information
UH Manoa Program Descriptions
Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)
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